


Life's No Fun Without a Good Scare

by gunslingaaahhh



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Gen, coda fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-11-01
Updated: 2011-11-01
Packaged: 2017-10-25 14:37:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,290
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/271373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gunslingaaahhh/pseuds/gunslingaaahhh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This is the first of the coda fics for 2x07. I think there will only be one more, and it'll be very different from this one.</p>
    </blockquote>





	Life's No Fun Without a Good Scare

**Author's Note:**

> This is the first of the coda fics for 2x07. I think there will only be one more, and it'll be very different from this one.

“Are you ever gonna tell me why you left that apartment like your shoes were on fire and your ass was catching?” Steve asked, flipping the hamburgers currently cooking on the grill. Danny made a noncommittal grunting noise from behind him, offering nothing else.

Closing the grill hood and coming to sit across from Danny at the patio table, Steve folded his hands on the surface and waited. Sometimes it took longer for Danny to crack, but he always inevitably did. That and Steve was genuinely curious; after all the squawking Danny had done about getting that place on the cheap – and it was pretty nice, murder aside – and literally almost signing the paperwork, to just run out like that? There had to be a good reason.

“Stop it.”

Steve blinked; he'd zoned out there for a second. “Stop what?”

“Stop staring at me like I'm a Rubik's cube you're determined to solve with your brain.”

“I'm not—no, you know what? After all the bullshit from that case and helping you shlep your crap into the place, I think I deserve an explanation. All of your shit is back in storage – thanks to us – and you _still_ don't have a place to live, after all that. So what gives, Danno, huh? What's the deal.”

Danny rolled a half-drunk bottle of beer between his palms, staring at the table. How brows were deeply furrowed; they'd been like that for the last two days. Steve was worried they might stick that way if Danny wasn't careful.

“Did I mention anything to you at all about a woman telling me about Stratham apartment?” he finally asked, keep his eyes on the table.

“Uh... not that I know of? You were there with Lori the first time, right?”

“Yeah. Well, before I went up there, I was on the phone about another place, ok and this woman was gardening. Like, right outside Stratham's building. I hang up, and she tells me there's a unit available in Stratham's building, et cetera. She also tells me to take the stairs, because the elevator was broken or something, I dunno. I said something about how that was just my luck, 'cause y'know, _cursed_ , and make my merry way up.”

Steve nods, confused as to what this has to do anything, but waits Danny out.

Scrubbing at his face, Danny leans back in his chair and sighs heavily. “So, the landlady meets us in the unit, to give whatever information she can, right? So I'm asking her about the place, the fucking _carpeting_ , and don't even think twice about the woman outside. It's moving day, and she comes up to have me sign a few more things. Ok, were you there when Grace was talking about getting a dog?”

Smiling a little, Steve nods again. “Yup, said that Rachel and Stan were 'thinking about it,' which is adult speak for 'not gonna happen.'”

“Right, so I ask the landlady about a pet deposit or whatever, because I remembered seeing that lady gardening, and she'd had a little dog with her. So I go, what's the deal with pets, my daughter wants a dog. The landlady tells me, point blank, they don't allow pets. So me, I'm standing there like 'what the hell,' because I _know_ I saw a woman with a dog. Which is what I say to the landlady.”

Going quiet, Danny just shakes his head, shakes his whole _body_ , like he just got a chill. Steve darts up to check the burgers – done and ready to go – and plates them, assembling the sandwiches the way he and Danny like them before sitting down and handing a plate over.

“So what happened? What'd the landlady tell you?” Steve asks around a mouthful of burger.

Danny pokes at his sandwich, a drawn look on his face now. “She, uh, told me the woman's name, I also mention that this woman told me about the broken elevator. The landlady is looking at me like I’m crazy, babe, ok, like I'm _you_ and I'm certifiably nuts. Then, she drops the bomb: the woman I spoke to? The woman I _interacted with_ has been _dead_ for _five years._ She fell down the fucking elevator shaft or something.”

Steve waits, thinking there must be more, that there must be something he's missing. He backtracks, replaying what Danny just said to him, in an attempt to figure out what that something is. He comes up with nothing.

“Hold on,” he says, wiping his mouth with his sleeve. “The woman you saw gardening, with the dog... she died five years ago in that building?”

“Uh-huh.”

“But you saw her, you spoke to her.”

“Were you not listening to me when I said--”

Holding up a hand, Steve waited until Danny shut up before continuing. “I'm just trying to process the information you've given me here. You asked the landlady about pets, and when she said they didn't allow pets, you mentioned this woman with her dog, and what she'd said about the elevator. The landlady then proceeded to tell you that this woman was dead? So... what, she tells you that and you suddenly decide you can't live there?”

Staring like Steve had grown an extra head, Danny takes a deep breath. “Steven. Are you even listening to me, ok? Listen to what I'm telling you: dead woman. The woman I described is a woman that died _five years ago_. The landlady knew exactly who I was talking about, with her floppy hat and her helpfulness. What about that doesn't jump out as extremely fucking _weird_ to you? I was talking to a person who no longer exists!”

Steve felt a grin forming on his face, and decided he wasn't even going to bother trying to hide it; this was too good.

“Danno... you were talking to a--”

“I swear, if you _even_ say--”

“Ghost,” Steve finished, smirking. “You had a small conversation with a spirit.”

“Why are you not more bothered by this.”

“Stranger things have happened, and the Hawaiian culture doesn't put such a negative light on the spirits of the dead. Actually, there are quite a few cultures around the world that consider it a blessing and an honor to be contacted by the dead.”

“Yeah, well, I am not from any of those cultures. I am not and I do not believe in ghosts.” Danny folded his arms across his chest and turned his attention to the ocean.

“How can you still be such a skeptic? You had _legitimate_ contact with--”

“She looked real!” Danny shouted, waving his arms. “She looked like a living, _breathing_ human being! She wasn't overly pale, she wasn't wispy or see-through or spooky looking. She had a fucking _Pomeranian_ with her, for Pete's sake! What type of ghost has a dog?”

“Maybe the dog died with her? And they haunt the building together? That's sort of cute, actually...” Steve trailed off, grinning.

“Cute? _Cute?_ There is nothing cute about me suddenly being concerned about my fucking sanity, Steven.” Danny's voice catches a little at the end, and Steve isn't smiling anymore.

“What? What do you mean?”

“In the car, you were asking me about the after-life and spirits and whatever. Do you remember what I told you?”

Steve frowned slightly. “Yeah, that you put stock in what you can see with your own eyes, although you did mention that sometimes not even that is enough.”

“That last was more about you, since you do such crazy shit.”

“Ah.”

“But don't you understand? This woman was the real deal! She was right there, out in the sun, fucking _gardening_. She looked as real as you do. To turn around and realize that she wasn't? Why would the landlady lie about it? She wouldn't, ok, full disclosure and all of that. She wouldn't lie and suddenly it was like I'd been hit by a _bus_ : my eyes had been wrong. I'd seen something that I should not have been able to see. The realization that, no only had I seen a dead person, but that there might be _other_ things I've seen and thought were real but weren't... I couldn't. Steve, if I lived there, who knows how many times I might have seen that lady! And then, what about Stratham? What if he'd come back to hang out?”

As Danny becomes increasingly more hysterical, Steve moves closer, until his chair is right next to Danny's. He leans forward, grasping Danny's wrists in his hands and stilling the other man's wildly flailing arms.

“You aren't crazy. If spirits want us to see them, we see them. You only saw her for a few minutes, maybe. That might have been all she had the energy for, you know? And hey, she overheard your conversation and thought 'he seems like a nice guy, and a cop to boot, I should tell him about this building.' She was perfectly harmless.”

“It's like someone shot a hole in everything I believe,” Danny whispered, raising his eyes to Steve and looking so lost Steve just decided 'fuck it,' and tugged Danny forward in a hug.

“That's not true, that's not true at all. You just... might want to readjust slightly, that's all. And hey, just because you saw her doesn't mean you'll see more!”

“What if I've been seeing them this whole time and didn't know?” Danny asked, voice muffled by Steve's shirt.

Steve shook his head. “I don't think that's the case. I think you were more open to it because of everything with the case, you were slightly preoccupied, and she thought she could help. It's ok, Danno, your beliefs still hold.”

“I don't believe in ghosts.”

“You don't have to; just because you saw one doesn't mean you have to fully believe in them.”

“I'm not going to.”

Pulling apart, Steve held Danny's gaze. “Don't. If you feel like you're more together not believing, then continue to be a skeptic. But, I do need you to understand that the people around here – me included – _do_ believe in spirits, and that they're with us, everywhere. It's a cultural thing more than anything else, but I grew up with it and just accepted it for what it was, as did Kono and Chin. You don't have to think like that, or believe in it, I'm not saying that. What I am saying is that you do need to have a _little_ more respect for the islands and the people here. People fear what they don't understand, and you don't understand this aspect of Hawaiian culture. That's ok, no one is going to hold that against you. Just... be more aware, alright?”

Danny stared right back, nodding after a few minutes. Steve released him, easing back into his own chair.

“So... what are you going to do about living arrangements?”

Danny ran his fingers through his hair, shoulders slumping. “I have no idea. I hate that hotel, I'm not going back there... I guess I can get a room for a bit until I find something else, I just hate how unfair it is to Grace.”

“Why don't you just stay here?” Steve asked, as nonchalantly as possible.

“What?”

“Yeah, I mean, it'll save you the money on a hotel if nothing else, and it isn't like Grace doesn't love to come over here. There's plenty of space for the both of you and you know it; you might as well live here anyway. You've already got a key, and you know the security code, and you've made me breakfast,” Steve said, blushing slightly. He was glad it was now too dark for Danny to notice.

Thoughtful, Danny hummed to himself for a minute. “I just don't wanna put you out--”

“Trust me, you aren't putting anyone out. You're already getting hosed paying for the storage, just stay here and I'll even give you a hand in apartment searching; you already yakked my ear off about your 'standards,'” Steve interrupted, air-quoting that last.

“Fine, but only if you're completely sure it won't be a bother.”

“Not a bother.”

“Alright then.”

Grinning at each other for a moment, Steve cleared is throat before moving his chair back to it's original position across the table from Danny. He snatched two more beers and sat back down, rubbing at his belly. It felt good to be full.

“So, anymore dates planned with _Gabby_ Asano?” Steve started, smiling.

Danny flipped him off. “You're such a tool. Do _you_ have any dates planned with Ms Weston?”

Steve choked on his beer. “What? Why would I have a date planned with Lori?”

“Oh, I dunno,” Danny said, shrugging. “You seemed awfully concerned about her Halloween escapades, and whether or not she went stag to the party.”

“How do you even know about that?”

Danny shrugged again. “We talk, y'know, we're friends. I mean, not friendly enough for her to call me 'Danno,' or anything, which reminds me: give that shit a rest before all of HPD starts doing it.”

Steve waved him off. “Friends, huh?”

“Yup. Actually, she even showed me a picture from that party, in her costume.”

Steve's jaw fell open. “ _What?_ She did not!”

“Oh yes she did,” Danny grinned, his teeth bright in the darkness. “And whoa, she looked _good._ ”

“Lemme see!”

“And breach her confidence? Not I, Commander. You can ask her yourself; be a good boy and maybe she'll give you a private viewing.”

Danny had about five seconds of a head start down the beach after that, Steve hoofing it after him. The shorter of the two was well aware that there'd be hell to pay when Steve caught him, but he didn't mind, it was worth the risk.

-FIN-


End file.
